Hollow Smiles
by blurryfvce
Summary: That's all he knew what to do: smile. / HenryF!Robin


He smiles.

It was weird to Robin at first – the way he smiles and manages to dig through his quick mind for whatever he can pun from his environment. Henry was… peculiar. Back when he merged with the Shepherds, he _did_ verify himself beneficial with his dark magic and murderous tactics. Upon victory within the battle he hinges amongst his crows, he cackles with that fire in his violet eyes, shouting, "Murder, murder!" The tactician would keep her distance from him.

He smiles.

She distinguishes his speedy reflexes when it derives with magic and his dark spells, effortlessly capable of lifting any that have been casted towards the units, reclaiming that he did this, "To keep the war at bay!"

Robin would only gawp at him in astonishment at such objectives, scolding him for his ways and his ideals of mass murder and war. "Don't you have a heart?" she inquires, aiming an accusing finger at Henry, "War's the one thing we're all trying to end here! You keep encouraging it!"

"Haha! But you're so skilled in the battlefield, Robin! You were _born_ to be in war!"

He smiles.

Apart from the battlefield, Robin at times thumps into the white-haired mage, typically around dinnertime, or when he's with Ricken and elaborating his teachings (and being a bad influence on the poor boy). She notes his interfaces – wide grin, spell book in his arm, and directing his finger as if to prove his words true. One of these bump-ins, the tactician lets herself hover around one of their gatherings, and listens.

"Argh! I can't do this, Henry! How in the world can you do it so… simply?"

Henry chuckles – loudly – and waves his index finger. "It's aaaall about practice, Ricken!"

Ricken sulks for a second, and finally brightens with an idea. "Hey! If you were able to make me more 'manly,' can't you just whip up a spell to make me an expert at this stuff?"

"No can do!" For emphasis, Henry flips a few pages of his tome. "Can't mess up magic with dark magic. And proving yourself manly… well that's not going to work if you didn't put the effort into dark magic, yes, yes?"

"Hm… I guess you're right…"

Robin glimpses from her habitation behind the small tent, and catches herself grinning at Henry's words. His ideals weren't the best, but his purposes to help those around him demonstrated otherwise. Dinner that night comprised of Robin poking with Ricken about 'that new spell' Henry educated him. It was a work in progress.

He smiles.

It does not take long for Robin to start opening up bit by bit to Henry, as she has begun to grow fond of his attendance. Although her recollection is vague on her past up to when she awoke in that field, Robin succeeds in explain to him how she encountered Chrom and the others.

"Your outfit resembles Plegia," he points out, dragging his finger down her arm. "Mhm, same material as well."

"I know nothing of my past, Henry."

He pleats his tome under his arm, and claps once, effectively making Robin jump in shock. "Perhaps I should whip up a spell so that you'd get those memories back! How about it?"

After taking one good look at the campsite they've been settling in for a while now, she turns back to a smiling dark mage. Did she really want to know what was of her past? Who she was? What she did before meeting everyone?

Henry blinks, puckering his lips fish-style after he saw Robin had been voiceless a bit too long, hoping to get her to laugh. "… Robin? Hello? Whoo-hoo?" After that fails, he waves his hand over her face, which pales, with dilated pupils as her gaze crowds forward.

Henry's smile weakens for the first time in what seems like ages, snapping his fingers in front of her. "Hey! Robin! Cut it out, will ya? I haven't even casted the spell yet!" The concern in his character is apparent.

The tactician breaks from her thoughts, swallowing. She acknowledges the fact that sooner or later she would have to face her past, since running would not last. Her vision finally centers on Henry, who was not smiling, but was tightening his lips instead, spell book in his hand and ready to cease her hypnotic stance. "Ah… Let's not do that, Henry."

He closes the book, eyeing her shadily. "Why?"

"I'm not ready yet."

Robin then apprehends that she recognizes nothing of his past – although she believed it would be rude to question it. Her curiosity gnaws at her, but she would have to wait for another time…

He smiles.

"My parents always sent me away to this prestigious elite school for magic," Henry mumbles after Robin efficaciously manages to open up. "I was always there. Never really got to see my parents!"

All she could do was gawk as he ended off his exclamation with a smile. Even after this, he smiles? "I'm so sorry, Henry."

"Haha! Don't be! I became skilled in magic because of this! All of the rigorous training and hard work paid off!" He tugs up his sleeve, and displays a clear scar on his arm for her to see. "Punishments were common in there… And I got them a lot!"

Her gasp fills the atmosphere, and her hands immediately hold his forearm to touch it. She frowns as he recoils. "Henry…"

"Silly Robin!~" He jerks himself up, pushing the tome to her for importance. "Gotta keep war going!"

She actually feels sorry for him.

He smiles.

Robin is well-aware of his past, and now knows why he's always able to smile through anything. His lack of expressing emotions was to blame for the chastisements he had forgone in the past. After talking with others, who agree that his smiles are forced, she tries to get him to feel any other emotion. She heard that Olivia managed to budge his emotions a bit.

"Do you ever get angry?"

"Why should I?" Henry's puzzled gaze only agitates her.

"How about sad? Upset? Worried?"

He laughs, and there's that same, hollow smile. "You're funny, Robin!"

"I'm not trying to be."

This leaves him muted shut.

He falters his smile.

Out in the open field, concluding another battle, Robin is devastatingly wounded, and to his horror, she bleeds. Her painful coughs, uncomfortable writhing, and her struggle to draw breaths has him feeling something that isn't happiness.

"R-Robin…" He shakes her a bit after he kneels down next to her, shocked to see how much blood she's lost. For the first time, seeing blood disgusted him. Observing someone in pain sickened him. Watching someone die repulsed him.

Coughing once, her brown eyes settle to his worrisome face. Blinking slowly, her hand barely raises up to grasp at his sleeve. "H-hey… You're…"

He ignores Chrom's orders to back away and let Lissa and Maribelle take over to help her. Blobby and wet fills his vision as her hand weakens her hold, and before he knows it, he does something he has not done in years.

He cries.

As he's forced away by Lon'qu and Gaius, Henry finally lets tears roll down his cheeks, pain ebb against his chest, and break that hollow smile. " _ROBIN!_ "

"… crying…"

Her eyes close, zoning out, her name being yelled out being the last thing she catches.

* * *

 _a/n: anonymous asked: HENRY X FEMALE MU OmmG -inNternaL scReaMinG-_


End file.
